"Duarte's backyard artichokes are grand, meaty things, used in the kitchen for the most basic preparation -- steaming -- where no other flavor vies with the thistle's deep green goodness. For sausage-stuffed artichokes, artichoke omelets, fried artichokes and the restaurant's legendary cream of artichoke soup, supplies come from farms an hour south, around Castroville. "
Michael Stern
"For spreading on toast along with breakfast, you get two kinds of preserves: sunny-sweet strawberry-rhubarb and tart olallieberry."
Michael Stern
"Alas, this picture does not show all the beefy artichoke hearts wrapped inside the eggs of this artichoke omelet."
Michael Stern
"Ron Duarte and one of the restaurant staff show off a box of local olallieberries that just came into the kitchen."
Michael Stern
"Because a cooked pear pie looks so much like a cooked apple pie, Ron Duarte explained that the pear pies always get a criss-cross crust to distinguish them from the merely vented full-crust apple."
Michael Stern
"When the doors open at 7, Duarte's tables quickly fill with locals and travelers who come for hearty breakfast and good conversation."
Michael Stern
"The Swiss chard in Duarte's backyard garden is blue-ribbon beautiful."
Michael Stern
Duarte's is a 100+ year-old small-town tavern where locals come to eat three square meals a day at mismatched tables and chairs in a knotty pine-paneled dining room or in the bar room or at a short counter. When it is crowded, as it usually is at mealtime, strangers share tables. Geezers hold court; babies squall; townsfolk trade gossip; and travelers are made to feel right at home.
